I’ve always told myself ‘I’m not a Quitter!’

A lot of this stems from my family history and the hardships my ancestors had to endure. I always told myself that, I’m the modern world, my life could never be as hard, tough or difficult as theirs and if they managed to get through, then I should absolutely be able to! It’s led me to a number of situations, both positive and has made me realise there is a difference between quitting and giving up.

As a frequent runner, sometimes I have good days and bad days. Sometimes, the miles just disappear beneath you and you have energy left to burn. Others it’s a real struggle to even get started and, there’s always a temptation to finish early or not go out at all. I try to self-justify it with ‘I’m too tired’ or something or other, but the truth is that I made a plan, that is achievable, that I have control over, and I’m giving up. I then remind myself of my tough-ass forebears and get my sorry ass out the door, or to the finish line I had planned pre-run.

But sometimes, there are situations when it’s ok to quit. Where actually, stopping and aborting Is the smart thing to do. It’s often much harder to see this point. I often watch deluded entrepreneurs on Dragon’s Den who have sunk everything they have, risked their family home and the investments of friends and family into what is just an awful idea, awfully executed and think to myself ‘I wish they’d realised the quitting-point much sooner’.

Quitting is something we do when we don’t have control over a situation. Another great ‘quitting-point’ can be in a conversation or argument. You have no control over what the other person or party says or does and so you need to realise what the eight ‘quitting-point’ is for you and when to bail out for a better result.

In examples like Dragon’s Den, the quitting-point can be hard to see because we believe we are in control of the circumstances and thus quitting would be giving up. But we aren’t in control of funds we don’t have, we aren’t in control of other people’s perceptions of our brands or products and sometimes we just have to admit that it may be a bad idea.

So, whilst I’ve known for a long time that I’m the type of person who never gives up, more recently I’ve come to realise that sometimes, if circumstances are beyond my control, it’s ok to bail out, to quit for a better outcome.